East Timor: The ‘dark stain’ on Australia’s proudest military operation | Four Corners

this program contains coarse language and images that may disturb some viewers every military contact since river has had a dark stain somewhere if you don't treat things like this in an open and honest way before the public you get a rot that sets in for more than two decades some brave men and women have been wrestling with the ghosts of east timor the truth has never come out something occurred on that battlefield that day and i can guarantee you a lot of the guys they're there are still carrying the guild of what what they witnessed had things been done the way that it should have been done we wouldn't be sitting here today there wouldn't be questions over what many people see was a really incredibly successful deployment two decades on those who served speak for the first time about how these events in east timor still haunt them i'm in timor every single day and i have been for 22 years some days are much better some days are really [ __ ] the blood the fear the anger all those emotions over and over and over again i can't help but leave an impression tonight on four corners the first of a two-part investigation into a clandestine and controversial episode in what was an australian triumph on the world stage the military intervention in east timor for more than 20 years the truth of what happened in a deadly clash between australian special forces and pro-indonesia militia has laid buried and so too has its aftermath in which allegations of mistreatment torture and unlawful killing were leveled at the australians for the first time we can reveal what the australian new zealand and british eyewitnesses saw [Music] in september 2000 australian military police investigator carl falauer was assigned a case that would change his life forever i was at work one day and across the road from my building was our military police central records office and my major came over from there and she took me down to the back of a building to an area that we call it the cone of silence or the tree of silence we only went there with people when we had to discuss things that were really sensitive and she said to me look we've got a problem there's allegations coming out of timor i'm putting together a small task force and you're going to be on the team did you ever have any inkling how big this would become i had an inkling that it was serious but as to what it then led into and how big it actually did become no i didn't over the next three years carl fellow was part of a team set up to investigate 19 allegations involving australian soldiers ranging from unlawful killing to the mistreatment of detainees we flew all around australia we visited every state except tasmania interviewing potential witnesses we went to new zealand and interviewed interviewed the new zealand sas members that were involved in a part of it we went to the united kingdom and interviewed members from the british special base squadron we went to timor located witnesses there and interviewed them all up i think we recorded over 330 witness statements the investigation was sparked by a fatal operation involving the new zealand and the australian sas the kiwis were so shocked by what they saw their australian comrades do they broke the special forces code of silence they raised concerns with a new zealand legal officer a female legal officer and told her that things weren't quite what they seemed on that day because they were concerned that they would get dragged into something that was not not right the new zealand legal officer the kiwi sas raised their concerns with was captain andreina gill the only thing that they were prepared to say to me and it was in an informal situation was that they thought they were doing quite dodgy activity the australian sas were doing dodging that was it but when it comes from a credible source i think that alarm bells were were ringing and it would seem to me that if they said the word dodgy i don't think they're making it up [Music] [Music] a proud and independent nation with a young population east timor is still haunted by its tragic history and the violent upheaval of 1999 has left deep scars we've traveled here to investigate what happened more than 20 years ago four corners have spoken to more than a hundred people about what happened and for many the interfet intervention was a source of great pride and the mere mention of these incidents is seen as a slur on this legacy but for others the story of east timor is incomplete without this chapter being told [Music] in august 1999 following the fall of indonesian president sahato the people of east timor were given the chance to decide their own future in a referendum supervised by the united nations despite an overwhelming vote in favor of independence pro-indonesia militia were determined to stop this tiny territory leaving the indonesian fold the united nations has decided to stay in east timor just as more horrifying evidence emerges that it's needed more than ever the unfolding bloodshed was beamed into the homes of australians watching on in horror it brings it right back it's still a vivid memory for australian doctor and aid worker john cooper by the time we got there dilly was ablaze really i think the indonesians have decided they weren't going to leave they were going to raise any infrastructure they'd put all this time and money into to timor in here they were being usurped so we're going to destroy all the things we've built up for this our wonderful society we're going to destroy just days after the vote pro-indonesia militias exacted their revenge swarming the town of suwai near the border with west timor the prominent local priest from suwai father hilario had been pleading for help to anyone who would listen he told me about bodies being chucked into the swamp and that the militia were killing everyone and he said you must come dr cooper traveled to suwai 180 kilometers southwest of the capital dilli it's been confirmed that at least 100 people and possibly many more have been massacred by the pro-jakarta militias the slaughter happened in the town of suwai in a catholic church packed with refugees we knew that the bad guys were very close by you could sort of smell it you know it was that toxic they were killing and burning as they went back towards west timor [Music] what happened at the church in suwai would shock the world and help trigger an international intervention there's blood everywhere there's blood in walls there's blood on bamboo scaffolding bullets weren't used to shoot people because they're probably expensive so we've just literally herded these people up three flights of stairs until there's no further to go and they've either thrown them over or the people chosen to jump over which is about 50 feet forward to their death as we went back to sawai's church cathedral among the ashes he made a tragic discovery they'd burnt the church precinct and all the grounds and killed people and we went through father hilario's home burnt charred remains of and out of the ashes near the fireplace i picked up a pair of his glasses and it was no doubt his glasses because it was his house and i'd seen him with those glasses on so he was guarded off and killed and that was all that was left in the ashes um [Music] and that was pretty confronting and pretty sad it was indiscriminate they were killing anyone anyone near them within days of the slaughter the united nations authorised an australian-led multinational force known as interfet to deploy to east timor to stop the violence their soldiers had the legal basis to use up and to including lethal force i called it peace enforcement or a bit of a nickname hairy chested peace operations for the first time we were doing something of this nature we were leading a big peacekeeping force a multinational force the commitment was also important for the defence force because the defence force the army navy and the air force had not been serving overseas on any major operations since the vietnam war interfere troops began arriving on the 20th of september 1999. the job of the intervet was to go in and establish peace their job was not to go in and shoot up everybody they could find their job was to dampen down the situation and bring it to a point where the indonesian soldiers would leave the main thing i think in retrospect that no one wanted was an incident because it was a powder keg had there been an incident some indonesian troops shot or a big group of australians shot it could have just exploded into a major a major war the australian contingent of interfere included combat troops and a squadron of elite sas soldiers we were on the first five hercules in dilly itself was a ghost town a lot of fires a lot of militia we could clearly see militia on the fringes of the airstrip openly taunting us we took a ride through delhi on the back of this indonesian military truck arrived at the un compound that had been evacuated i think it couldn't have been more than 10 to 12 hours beforehand and it was an absolute mess people's lives destroyed everywhere it was just devastating i will never ever as long as i live forget this was on the second day in country and we were driving up the hill into the hills at the back of dilly to a place called diarrhea where there was a catholic church that's where the population of dilly was and i will never forget the sound of hundreds of thousands of people cheering it is it's it's awesome in its full meaning of that word a week into the deployment andrena gill arrived in dilly a qualified barrister and military lawyer her job was to make sure that foreign troops followed the rules i was on loan to the headquarters interference and in particular the interfere combined legal office or iclo and so my role there was to be part of the headquarters legal team that gave advice to the commander and the commander was peter cosgrove yes that's right it was incredibly challenging because it was an unknown situation we were grappling with many issues that we weren't used to hadn't perhaps come across before david freeman was assigned to work with andrena gill at the legal office in dilly i was part of the advanced party that went in with general cosgrove on the 20th of september his nickname what we called him in timor because i used to go to church with him we called him saint peter of course now he's known as sir peter we will stop it we do not want that we'd follow him to the end of the earth get the information he was a very straight shooter he was i thought very impressive nothing theatrical he was very to the point nitty gritty down to earth sort of stuff this is the situation this is what we're doing very firm no mucking around for frontline operations the australian sas would join with colleagues from the new zealand and british special forces to form response force the tip of the spear against the pro-indonesia militias yeah over here so you're coming down that way let's go the response force did the sorts of things that the sas trained for and our expert at surveillance gathering information reconnaissance they were able to move very quickly to carry out raids to secure areas if they needed to be secured michael cleary was a sergeant in the intelligence corps attached to the sas we had been with them for approximately i think about two to three weeks in our staging area and that was at tyndall my thoughts are champions they're really really good guys uh very professional uh very proud to have served with them [Music] on the 6th of october 1999 a group of soldiers from response force had set up a roadblock at this intersection southwest of suwai the first hostilities for australian troops came after they moved into the troubled southwest town of suwai conducting a sweep through the area and establishing a roadblock it was here the sas opened fire for the first time in the operation they fired shots after a truck burst through the checkpoint injuring four occupants in the aftermath more than 100 people were rounded up 14 were sent back to dilly for interrogation the rest were escorted in a convoy by australian sas soldiers towards the border with west timor [Music] this is the road the convoy took towards the west timor border the sas were in land rovers and a unimog truck the locals in an assortment of vehicles and it was right near here about four kilometres west of suwai that a deadly trap was sprung [Music] as they go down along the road suddenly the trucks ahead speed up and clearly something is happening and very soon those two land rovers come under enemy fire militiamen firing out them in an ambush two australian sas soldiers were hit one in the leg and arm the other in the neck x-rays show just how close interfet came to losing its first soldier in east timor they were australia's first serious conflict casualties since the vietnam war it would be a period of high tension they'd be on a high but they're also very tightly disciplined and they know what needs to be done but for these soldiers this was the first time that they had been in action as the two sas soldiers received emergency treatment response force launched a counter-attack pouring fierce fire in the direction of the militia when the shooting stopped two suspected militia lay dead two australian soldiers the interfet commander peter cosgrove addressed the waiting media in dilly the militia were armed with an sks rifle and an fn rifle these weapons have been recovered along with their webbing which was military-style webbing although the men were dressed in the usual militia garb after the clash at suwai the bodies of the two militia were flown to dilly that was a big day we had obviously been notified that there'd been a contact i do know that a large force had been contacted by bad guys militia at the time [Music] back in the capital intelligence corps sergeant michael clary helped search the bodies of the dead militiamen a confronting task given the state of the corpses it was hot sweaty smelly very smelly we had like folding tables and each person was laid out on a table for the first five minutes it's just about holy [ __ ] there's two people in front of us and to say that they had died violently there's probably an understatement they had [Music] they were very badly wounded you're moving these bodies and a lot of fluid comes out a lot of blood has a lot of grey matter the other thing that struck me was these are two people and that's how i have to treat them i didn't see them as dead bodies i saw them as people yeah i can see them as plain his day now on the tables the hole in the head equipment laid out yes they're standing over them take photos alan joyce was an australian defense force sergeant who was asked to help photograph the militiamen's bodies the blood of my hands a couple of times after i'd finished that i kept waking up smelling my hands thinking i've got to wash them but scrub them clean they were clean but it's just he said that's just in your mind that you think they're not clean photographs of the bodies obtained by four corners revealed they had horrific wounds some who were there believe they may have been shot at close range one man was missing a greater portion of the top of his head if i remember it was this part of his head was gone and you clearly see his brain and we all remarked at the same time that that was done really close and we knew that not being experts but we knew it because the entry wound was burnt and you know that when you fire a weapon there's a muzzle blast uh you know stuff comes out of the end of the barrel and it burns if it's too close it will burn the skin and in this particular fellows case he had one of those injuries the other fellow from memory was missing a greater portion of his jaw and we made the same observation in that there was an entry wound from memory on his forehead that was once again burnt which indicated to us that whatever had done this had been done probably very at very close range so the day after the ambush interfet legal officer andrena gill wanted an investigation because it was the first fatal shooting of the mission i see my role as ensuring that matters looked at properly and thoroughly and if there was compliance with the rules of engagement then the mat is at an end and there's a documentary record and it protects them because it's all done properly [Music] in her daily diary entry she recounted general cosgrove's response commander interfere came in and basically announced he will not authorize an investigation the officer and command or commanding officer can be questioned and if they believe acted appropriately the matter is at an end he does not want actions such as the incident last night scrutinized internally in this environment however my view is it could bite it could be seen as a cover-up in a statement sir peter cosgrove told four corners at the time i was unaware of any alleged impropriety had i been i would have immediately initiated an investigation in the days afterward stories about what really happened at suwai started to spread among members of the new zealand sas some of these guys were not happy with what happened at the scene i believe that what they were telling to us was the truth they were extremely credible they were very nice likeable guys you know we had a very good conversations with them it was a serious matter and some of the stuff that we were bringing up you could see physically upset him [Music] within 12 months a full-blown military police special inquiry was underway the mp investigators can you remember what they did focus on when they spoke to you what they were trying to get the bottom off my understanding from my recollection was in relation to the saw eye contact and a deceased militia and whether there had been unlawful killings as a result of that contact the investigation would stir up a world of pain for all involved throughout the whole process at times we're treated like priors sort of thing even amongst our own people they're um yeah some of us some people were against us some of them were for us a lot of professional jealousies on some parts the investigator's role was to determine exactly how the two militia were killed one of the soldiers involved in the ambush was an experienced member of the australian sas a leader out on the patrols highly trained in the art of war who we will call operator k he would become a key focus of the long-running australian military police investigation over the sui ambush with talk of unlawful killing and allegations of the mistreatment of the two bodies among the people he investigators spoke to were members of the new zealand sas and four corners has obtained their statements [Music] three kiwi sas soldiers described hearing gunshots after the firefight i heard a number of shots each time i heard one i went to grounds this happened about two or three times one of his comrades pinpointed where they came from these shots came from the australian side of the road the kiwi soldiers believed the shots were being fired into the militia corpses which is illegal i heard someone call out thou are our rounds just shooting the bodies or words to that effect the way we're trained is that when you're in a in a conflict where you're fighting through everything's fair game but once you stop and you go back into what we call re-org when you're pulling all the wounded and the dead bodies back in there should be no reason to to shoot anyone a new zealand sas soldier informed investigators he was told that operator k had put a few extra rounds into the bodies that were already dead a soldier who was standing a few meters away later reported it appeared that both bodies had been shot through the throat the wounds to the throat concerned me as it was near impossible to have two separate wounds on each body to the throat in similar positions michael cleary later told military police about a conversation he had with an australian sas trooper who gave a similar account he said to me i was involved in the sweep of the contact area i was located next to operator k during this sweep and i saw operator k shoot both of the bodies at close range this sas trooper would later tell investigators that he was dehydrated after the ambush his recollection of events was hazy and he could not recall the conversation with clary but for clary the story swirling about suei could not be ignored no stories at the time with the little bit of information that i knew didn't sit well with me at all as a soldier as a man as a dad as a husband i just thought you know if this is true then it's complete [ __ ] you know you just don't do that investigators uncovered an even more shocking version of events a new zealand essay a soldier recounted a conversation with an australian colleague he then went on to say how operator k was trying to claim the kills from the ambush site he further went on to tell me how when the two bodies were recovered one of them was not dead and it got up and started to run away when operator k arced him up arcing up is slang for shooting in this case someone who was allegedly running away which would constitute murder if someone's shooting at you or a fellow soldier you've got the right to shoot to kill but if they're running away and they're not a threat then you know they should same as they might have a rifle but if they've got their hands up you can't go you've got a gun shoot them something occurred on that battlefield that day and i can guarantee you a lot of the guys they're there are still carrying the guilt of what what they witness after the ambush the bodies of the two dead militia were loaded on top of this australian light armored vehicle or lav and taken into suwai itself the investigators were given damning eyewitness accounts about what they saw operator k do to the bodies on our return to sawai i can also recall seeing operator k standing on top of this leve towards the rear i heard operator case scream how dare you shoot my boys or worse to that effect he was also kicking and punching the bodies as he said this at this time i was about 10 to 15 meters away from the lav and i thought to myself [ __ ] he's lost it he then kicked one of the bodies off the back of the lav three other new zealand sas soldiers saw at least one of the bodies kicked off the vehicle i saw operator k standing on the rear of this vehicle i heard him scream that's for hurting my lads or words to that effect i can also recall him kicking the bodies as he said this he then kicked one of the bodies off the lav and i assisted in lifting the other one down i was shocked by what i just witnessed another new zealand patrol member saw one of the bodies kicked again once it was on the ground i also heard the distinctive voice of operator k saying gotcha you [ __ ] a words that effect i heard operator k's voice emanating from the direction of where i could see a body lying on the ground several minutes later i looked towards the direction of the body again only to see approximately two persons standing in the vicinity of the body while another kicked it one or two times a new zealand sas officer told investigators he was not surprised by these accounts this seemed to fit the personality of operator k as we had come to know him i would describe him as a loose cannon and often unprofessional in the way he was conducting himself whilst on operations speaking to military police none of the australian sas would back up the kiwis accounts but investigator carl fellower says some were clearly torn when recounting what happened at suwai you can always tell when someone's telling you the truth or when they're they're not so when we interviewed a lot of the sas guys some of them nearly cried when we were talking to them they you could see it in their eyes that they wanted to say things but out of loyalty to either their fellow soldiers or whatever they didn't go through with a lot of stuff physically after the killings of the two militiamen alan joyce says he was told by an sas soldier to remove the bodies so we got body bags had to put them in the body bag with their equipment and then while still darkness put them back in the land rover taken down the airport and told to put them under the tarp and just leave them there because the locals will bury them and i put them there because i was told to do that we just dumped them there no respect for them at all because they want to get rid of them after the sui mission the new zealand sas complained that they were left out of the operational debrief i remember a number of the kiwis bringing up saying that they were excluded and i believe that they were concerned about what was written in that post-operational report that it may not have truly reflected what happened and why do you think they would have been excluded i think they were excluded because they may have told the truth or they would have raised concerns or something like that [Music] one new zealand special forces officer told the military police investigators he believed there was a toxic element within the australian sas i became concerned with the attitude of the sasr and there seemed to be a general perception that this was a shooting war like vietnam and not a peacekeeping mission i would describe their attitude as being cowboys as a result of this i told my soldiers that this was a peacekeeping mission and not a war this was to ensure that at no time could we the new zealand contingent be tarred with the same brush that is cowboys that was heard a lot of times or was conveyed to us a lot of times that this this cowboy attitude later new zealand special forces expressed concerns to andreina gill about another possible breach of the rules of engagement by the australian sas this prompted her to ask to look at the patrol reports when she raised it with her boss she says general cosgrove intervened when he entered in the room he interrupted our discussion about it and he told us that we were not to look at any patrol reports or not to examine the incidents which resulted in the rules of engagement being actioned in a statement sir peter cosgrove told four corners he recalled the conversation and said the officer had a notion that all patrol reports would be scrutinized in the first place by legal officers simply well intentioned as it was this was unworkable and would have paralyzed the whole operation andrena gill was frustrated that her boss in the legal office was not giving general cosgrove the advice he needed i thought the head of legal my boss would talk to general cosgrove about that or maybe talk him through perhaps the risks with not doing that in the office when i was there general cosgrove was not challenged by him by 2001 the military police had come to the view that the killing of the two militiamen could have been murder the investigators felt they were under growing pressure we just copped a lot of grief you know that we were tarnishing the army's reputation or that well we didn't do it we were only there investigating what these guys were telling us the defense department called in the australian federal police to advise on the case the afp noted there were rumors that suggested the killings were an act of revenge for the wounding of the two australian soldiers the afp reviewed the evidence and stated that the two militiamen may have been shot at short range with a nine millimeter pistol after they had been wounded it found the material provides some evidence towards substantiating an allegation of murder the afp understood the gravity of the allegations the political impact of this investigation has been assessed as substantial and has to be managed the afp advised defense they could continue on alone accept afp help or drop the case the military police were determined to push on termination of this investigation is not considered to be a sound option the allegations are known and if defenses to avoid counter-allegations of cover-up all allegations not just sue i should be thoroughly investigated prior to any closure [Music] to sustain a murder charge the military police needed forensic evidence so they returned to timor to exhume the bodies [Music] i was contacted by a sergeant from the military police who had received my name through the local police forensic services group who knew me and had suggested that they consult me peter ellis performed autopsies on the exhumed bodies of the suspected militia in october 2002 three years after they were killed with a time lapse of up to three years or more after death bodies decompose and they will decompose more rapidly in some conditions certainly in moist humid climates and especially if the bodies have not been should we say looked after properly after death so if they've been buried roughly not embalmed and there's been no attempt to preserve them then they will decompose and deteriorate very rapidly the photos from dr ellis's autopsy show some evidence one man may have been shot in the back of the head [Music] he also found both bodies had chest wounds and shattered skulls the head injury is suggestive of blunt trauma applied to the front of the forehead while a gunshot wound cannot be excluded no obvious exit wound is detected and the back of the head is not damaged [Music] the indication was that all the damage had been caused from going inwards the inference raised whether it was possibly by the shape of it was possibly by the heel of a boot so that would go along with the allegations of being stomped on and i do believe that possibly some of the ribs had suffered fractures or damage too which would indicate that they had been kicked and what's your personal belief about that the stomping theory um my my belief taken from what i've spoken to people was that someone has gone to town on the body has has used their foot and and caved their head in and do we know if that body was alive or dead at the time i have no idea i i would i hate saying the word assume i believe that the body was dead because i believe that someone put some rounds into him post battle which which is illegal the autopsy reports show the bodies were so decomposed they were unable to determine if they were shot at close range but they did find the two men died of either gunshot wounds or blunt force trauma without eyewitnesses or conclusive forensic evidence the military police were unable to recommend a murder charge i'd put two years of hard work into a job in the military our job is to investigate an allegation whether it's true or not but you do you put your heart and soul in it i i believe that we had a prima facie case that something occurred based on the military police investigation operator k was charged with kicking the corpses the case hinged on the testimony of the new zealand sas our personnel found themselves in the midst of somebody else's shitstorm and it has an appearance of them trying to walk through it without getting covered in it new zealand journalist david fisher investigated the suei saga and its aftermath there were nine new zealand soldiers who were considered witnesses or persons of interest in an inquiry that was being carried out by the australian defence force that that inquiry was to do with what they called indignities to a corpse two of those were identified as key witnesses who would have been needed to testify in any case that went ahead against the sa sr member and they had also expressed a willingness to take part and to offer their testimony the two kiwi sas soldiers were all set to testify against operator k but their superiors in the new zealand defence force had genuine fears for their safety if they did take the stand they asked of australia certain conditions to be put in place to protect their identities the australian defence force had gone some way down that path they had said their identities will be protected by name suppression so their identities aren't going to be something that will be easily accessible to the public from a new zealand perspective though that wasn't enough uh the new zealand defence force had said to australia we want more than that name suppression isn't enough um we want them to be known by their call signs four corners has been told the australian military magistrate hearing the case ruled that the names of the kiwi witnesses had to be revealed in court out of fairness to operate a k so the end result of the debate about name suppression and using call signs was that there was no testimony from the new zealand soldiers the case collapsed and that was the end of it the criminal case against operator k fell apart and he was acquitted his court records remained suppressed to this day the army pursued administrative action against him but he was again found not guilty at the end of the day there's an investigative process and the evidence has to be put through to a court of law that never occurred on this one so to say that he was acquitted it really it upsets me it upsets the guys on the team after operator k complained general peter cosgrove by then chief of the defense force ordered an inquiry it found the military police investigation took too long the investigators were inexperienced and the quality of witness statements was poor operator k received a formal apology the military police believed it was payback sir peter cosgrove told four corners that he has no knowledge of this sentiment and refutes any sense of payback it has caused us a lot of grief it causes a lot of sleepless nights it caused the strain on my marriage my wife doesn't know anything about what i did in that investigation the first she will actually know the investigation is if she sits down and watches this interview so for for two years of my life i couldn't tell her what i did and for the 15 years since i got out i've never spoken to her about it some of those involved in the special enquiry believe the failure to obtain a prosecution had consequences for later operations and was the first link in a chain leading to alleged sas war crimes in afghanistan if things had been different and that protection had been given to the new zealanders i don't think we would have had some of the issues that we had in in afghanistan i think it gave the wrong message to some people in in various organizations that they could do what they want and get away with it there were more allegations against the australian military in east timor the new zealanders were so concerned they began a secret investigation into their australian comrades and what it found was even more shocking next week on four corners evidence of torture it's outrageous i mean you can't do that i use the word outrageous and unlawful sometimes i think i do wish i did nothing i wish i had said nothing i wish i had turned my back but that wasn't really an option i had no choice and i suffered the consequences [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] you

Channel: ABC News In-depth

Views: 413,054

Keywords: east timor, timor, timor leste, mark willacy, four corners, SAS, Afghanistan, war, peace, peace-keeping, UN, United Nations, INTERFET, New Zealand, Kiwi, soldiers, commander, Cosgrove, Australian Defence Force, Army, ADF, Australia, court, torture, interrogation, bodies, kicking, punching, corpse, military, mission, special forces, military police, war crimes, investigation, journalism, documentary, walkley, gold walkley, misconduct, Suai, Dili, Indonesia, militia, dead, wounded, shot, independence, ambush, abc news, abc

Id: YfUmumixFcQ

Length: 46min 7sec (2767 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 04 2022